A Meeting That Was Never Told
by Tsukishou
Summary: Spoiler to the last chapter of the manga. A story about the meeting of two characters of the series that never actually met or so I believe . And how one meeting just... end up with another. HiguchiXKanae.
1. Just A Friend of A Friend

**Disclaimer: I do not own MTNN and any of its characters.**

**Just a Friend of a Friend**

"And that makes it twenty thousand yen of debt. Wow, Yako... Since when are you so tight on money? Maybe I should start counting the interests...." She whistles as she finishes counting the sum of her borrowed money. Her friend almost burst out the coffee she just sipped.

"Y-you can't possibly do that! You don't know what I'd gone through just to be able to eat a simple, decent meal these days! I even had to cut the numbers of meal I take each day to just four times a day!" Yako explains desperately, tears rolling down her cheek.

"Haha... But really, since you're back in Japan again at last, why not just have some nice meal at home? That would surely cut down your expenses, right?"

Terror suddenly painted the detective's face. "Well, you could say that, since Miss Sanako had won a lottery to go on a world trip for two month, my mother had been cooking by herself, and the kitchen had been..." Her voice is getting more distant as she portrayed her used-to-be kitchen. Her vision drifts away as she continues, words about 'radiation' and 'dangerous chemical' sometimes heard between her whispers.

"Okay, okay! I get the point! Geez, it's always about food when you're around, huh? Seems like the world-famous detective will always be just the same Yako I know." She grins at her friend.

It has been a year since she last saw her best friend, but Kanae feels as if she had just met her yesterday. Not to mention that the first word she uttered when they first meet after those times were to borrow some money for food. The same old Yako will never lose her appetite, no matter how famous, how incredible she gets as a detective. Just like the old times, Kanae thought as she watched her finished her tenth piece of apple pie (or was it her thirteen, she wonders).

"But you know, being as famous as yourself, how come you're having so much trouble with money that you have to borrow some from me? I thought you'd have clients lining up to pay you with everything, or something like that..." She spoke of her mind while sipping her coffee, paying no attention to her suddenly missing cheesecake.

"I don't always have trouble with money, you know. It's just that I have this sudden huge expense thanks to that sadistic, ignorant demon suddenly breaking the plane I was on. Thank God no one was harmed..."

"Thanks to what?" She raised an eyebrow, picking up the word 'demon' among her lines. Or were her ears playing tricks on her?

"N-nothing!! Anyway, what about you? How're you doing with that boyfriend you mention in your email?" She quickly changed the subject, obviously evading the suspicious look Kanae was giving her.

"Oh well, I broke up with him long time ago. He was just some jerk I found on the internet, anyway. Uttering some sweet words before ended up trying to smuggle me for some petty money." She sighed at her own failure in romance. None of those blind dates have ever worked out well, but she just never learns her lesson, it seems.

"Hey, why don't you hook me up with one of your client? I'm fine as long as they've got good face and wallet, you know." She teased, grinning. Her best friend opens her mouth in protest but was interrupted by an unfamiliar voice.

"Is that you, Katsuragi?"

Both girls looked at the voice's owner. A man a bit older than themselves stands a few feet from their desk. His features are those of a grown up man, yet his face hold a somewhat boyish appeal. His black suit seems kind of out of place in the atmosphere of the café, not to mention doesn't suite his young looking face. A pair of glasses covers his eyes, but still doesn't hide the boyish look of his face. Cute, Kanae thought at first glance.

"It IS you! Long time no see, eh? I heard about you in the news, you know. Seems like you've gotten pretty famous." He grins, casually walking towards them. He stands beside their table, and Kanae can't help but to notice the laptop he was carrying.

"Higuchi-san! I'd never thought I'll see you here! How's the police department doing? Looks like you've been doing pretty well yourself." She moves her seat, gesturing to him to sit beside her.

Kanae just stare at them as they chatted away. She clears her throat, reminding them of her existence.

"Oh! Sorry, this is an acquaintance of mine from the police department, Higuchi Yuuya-san. Higuchi-san, this is my best friend, Kanae." She introduces them to each other.

"So... You're a cop or something? What is a police officer doing in a small café like this?" She starts, trying to make a conversation.

"A detective, actually. Just taking a break from some paper work. Office formality just doesn't suite my personality, I guess." He sighs and scratches his un-itchy head. "Beside, the people from the office said that the cheesecakes here are top notch."

"Yeah... Tell me about it..." Kanae looks at her empty plate in vain. Yako looks away at her comment.

"Anyway... It's soo nice meeting you again, Higuchi-san. You sure are starting to look like Usui-san now. Your dedication, I mean!!" She quickly added as shock and depression fills his expression, hands ready to throw his own glasses out of the window.

"Oh, speaking of Usui-san, how is he—?" Her words are cut by the ring of her phone. Her happy expression suddenly turns into a gloomy one, and sometimes terrified one, as she spoke to the other side. She sighed as she closed her phone.

"Um... Sorry about that. Looks like I should really leave now. See you around, Higuchi-san. And I'll call you later about my debt, Kanae. Bye!" She rises from her seat and bow down a little before leaving in a hurry.

The two of them just stare at Yako's disappearing figure and stay silent for a few moments. Kanae's face twitches as she just realized that she left without paying her own bills.

"What's wrong?" His voice brings her back.

"Nothing. It's just that she seems to forget to pay her own bills, again." She sighed as she glances at the pile of plates at the other side of the table, trying to decide whether to put it in her debt as well or not.

"Seems... rather expensive... Want me to help you pay?"

"Nah... I'll just put it in her tab. I'd better get going too. Nice meeting you, Higuchi-san." She stands and was about to pay when she realizes something. She had already treated Yako for lunch earlier, and not bringing her credit card is absolutely not helping the situation. She curses a little as she feels the thinness of her wallet.

"Pardon?" Higuchi raises an eyebrow, looking at her with questioning look.

She freezes for seconds, before finally deciding to swallow her embarrassment down. "Sorry, but... Could you... I paid for her lunch earlier... and well... You know..." She can feel her ears heat up as she mutters nervously. Her eyes wander away, unable to meet his eyes.

He chuckles at her muttering, making her felt even worse. To have to borrow money from someone she just knew is simply too embarrassing.

"Just leave the bills. I'll take care of it." He winks at her, reassuring.

She bows down deeply a couple times before leaving the table, muttering her gratitude as she does so. She glances back at him as she reach the café's door and find him waving and smiling at her, and she could feel herself blushing. She hastily leaves the café after giving him a quick wave, trying to erase her embarrassment as she walk away.

Oh well, it's not like they're going to meet again. After all, he's just another friend of a friend of her.

**A.N: Just a little story about the two characters that I thought had never met in the real story, or did I missed the fact? In the 24****th**** episode of the anime, I see them speaking to each other but I don't remember seeing them ever meeting each other. If anyone knows in what chapter/episode did they meet I'll really appreciate it if you tell me. Anyway, please tell me what you think of the story.**


	2. The Girl He Barely Knew

**Special thanks for Bee who had kindly reviewed the story. :D**

**Disclaimer: I do not own MTNN and any of its characters.**

**The Girl He Barely Knew**

He walked aimlessly in the crowd, unsure of what to do with his sudden free time. As strange as it could be, Usui had actually told him to take the day off, despite the fact that it's actually Monday. Maybe it's because he had been working overtime to finish his last case (and even sacrifice his precious, rare free weekend). Or maybe it's just because his works was mostly unofficially taken by the famous investigator who had just recently returned to Japan, Katsuragi Yako.

She seemed to be getting the job done even faster these days (probably due to the comeback of a certain demon so-called assistant of hers), exceedingly putting up to her world reputation. Not that he's complaining; he'd take all the free time he could have, and be very grateful for that.

But now that he was suddenly given the dreamed free time, he had absolutely no idea of what to do with it. Maybe he'll just go pay the investigator duo a visit. Or maybe he'll just hang around in the nearby internet café or something...

An old bookstore caught his attention as he wandered around. Even though it was located in the middle of a busy street, the bookstore seemed to be out of people attention. On the upper side of the entrance was a sign "The World", seemed too grant of a name for such a laid back bookstore. He rarely went to one, as he never understood why he'd need to read a book while the internet had everything he needed to know.

As he entered the store out of curiosity and boredom, he could see books of many categories arranged neatly in the lines of bookshelves. The atmosphere in the store was surprisingly pleasant, even the smell of the old books was comforting. Maybe just spending the day reading some books wouldn't be so bad, he thought as he observe a line of books.

With a few books with titles he found pretty interesting in hand, he went to the back of the store, looking for the shopkeeper. As he passed the rows of bookshelves, he saw a figure of woman squatting beside a heap of books. The person was wearing something that he recognized as a white apron and was looking very seriously at the heap of books, seemed like trying to figure out how to arrange them correctly. He quickly assumed the person was the shopkeeper and approached her.

"Excuse me, but I'd like these books please."

"Wha—? Gyaah!!"

The person was apparently too engulfed with her work that she wasn't aware of him already standing right behind her. His sudden call seemed to catch her off guard that she accidently pulled one of the books too hard, making the pile fell right to her.

"Ow ow ow...What do you think you're—?!" Her sentence was abruptly cut off with a gasp, and her angry look was quickly replaced with a surprised one (and was that a blush he just saw?).

"H-Higuchi-san! Why are you here?!"

"Are you alright? I'm sorry to surprise you like that." He reached his free hand to her, helping her up on her feet. It took him a few moments before recognizing who the person he had almost buried under the books was.

"Ah! It's Kaname-san, right? The one with Katsuragi the other day..."

"It's... Kanae, actually. Kagohara Kanae." She corrected him, a bit disappointment in her voice.

"My bad. It's Kagohara then. Sorry, but could you count this for me?" He held up the books he had chosen earlier.

"Sure. But why are you here at this time? No work today?" She asked as she took the books from his hand to a table hidden behind a bookshelf, counting the total of the books' cost.

"Nope. Your friend Katsuragi took most of my work, and it's not like the information crime division had many works when there's no actual crime going on. Anyway, so you worked here? Part-time?"

"Ah, yes. I'm on my semester break, so I don't have anything to do. And the pay was quite nice, considering that all I have to do was watch the store for some hours. It's a good add for my shopping— I mean, college fee."

"Hee... I see. Oh, yes. Thank you," He took the paper bag from the table." So how much is it?" He asked as he took out his wallet.

"It's free of charge. Just take it as the payment for a few days ago." She said as she smiled rather embarrassedly. He didn't even remember about it until she mentioned it.

"Well, thanks. But you don't have to do it, really. I don't mind it at all." He insisted on paying, pulling some money from his wallet. A pair of small hands suddenly met his, abruptly forcing him to put the money back in.

"But I mind it! A lot!! It's soo embarrassing that I had to borrow money from someone I barely knew! And a guy on top of that!! It's so embarrassing that I couldn't even sleep that night!!" She exclaimed, letting out the feeling that had seemed to bother her very much these past days.

"I-I see... Sorry... I didn't mean to make you feel that way. If it makes you feel better, then I'll take the kind offer." She sighed in relief at his words. A few seconds past before she realized that her hands were still resting on his. She quickly pulled her hands away, uttering apologizes as she did so, slight pink tinted on her cheeks.

He chuckled at her action, causing her to make a questioning look at her face.

"Ahahaha... Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at you. It's just that, when I first saw you, I thought you're more of the composed and lady-like type. I didn't expect to see you'll be embarrassed and apologetic like that. I guess you really can't judge the book by its cover." He explained honestly.

"Well, I'm not always all embarrassed and apologetic. It's just that we had a wrong start from the beginning, you know." She denied his opinion, seemed a little bit offended by his word.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean it in a bad way. I'm just surprised is all." He quickly added, not wanting any more bad impression from her.

"Well, I don't want to be any more bother to you, so I'll be on my way now. Thanks for the books, by the way." He smiled apologetically, bowing a little before heading toward the entrance. Now to leave before she changes her thought about the books....

"Wait!" He stopped almost immediately, turned his head a little to look back at her. "I... Um... Thank you for... what you did back then. I'm actually glad... that you're there at that time, you know?" And she blushed for the third time today (or so he remembered) as she looked away. And as strange as it could be, he actually found it kind of cute.

"You're very welcome." He replied, waving as he continued his way.

Kagohara Kanae, a friend of an acquaintance of his, composed yet clumsy, kind yet hard to understand, a girl he barely knew, and free books. He smiled as he remembered her hands on his. Going to a bookstore wasn't so bad after all.

**A.N: Another chapter, I was originally going to add some NeuroYako but ended up with only bits of fluff of HiguchiKanae. Oh well... Maybe next chapter... I'm glad to see some people actually clicked on this story. I'll be very happy to know if you actually read and, if possible, like the story. Please tell me what you think of the story. Sorry if I got the characters OOC.**


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